Congressional diary: Who would have thought OH-05 would see this many ads?

• More ads in OH-05

6 more days in OH-05's special election, and the campaign keeps heating up. Two days after the DCCC's ad buy and one day after a massive initial ad buy of $250,000, the NRCC has dumped even more money in the race, for a total now of nearly $325,000. This is more than 10% of the NRCC's total cash-on-hand right now.

Meanwhile, the ads have started to run. I linked to the Democratic ad yesterday, and here are a few ads being run by Republicans. First up is Bob Latta's personal ad which is all about illegal immigration (you can view it here. It features a very disturbing 10 second blurry shot of a policeman padding down two men that are arrested and pressed against a car... No comment needed, I believe. The NRCC's ad is here and is a negative ad against Democrat Robin Weirauch... also on the topic of illegal immigration. No doubt the GOP thinks this issue will work wonders next year, and we shall see next Tuesday how it has worked out in Ohio.

What is frustrating is that we have not seen a single independent poll of the race, so it is hard to know where things stand, whether the committees are overreacting, overplaying their hand, or whether they are dead on and the race is actually competitive.

• Taking Al Franken seriously

Meanwhile, this new New York Times piece out today is a good morning read for those who are frustrated by how under-covered the Minnesota race has been over the past few months. The quick summary: Al Franken has been campaigning for months, and everyone -- including opponents -- are starting to take him seriously. Some Republicans are excited at the prospect of running against him thinking he is too polarizing, and some Democrats resent him for supporting the Iraq War early.

It is difficult to know how competitive Franken would be. One thing that is certain is that (1) he is within single-digits in polls taken these past few months and (2) he is one of the best fundraisers on the Senate circuit, even outraising Coleman for the third quarter. Both these elements suggest Democrats should not be that concerned about Franken's electability, though there is no question that neither he nor Ciresi are slam dunks against Coleman.